


Such Good Care

by vaxildamn



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, Sickfic, Vax is kind of a drama queen sometimes when he's sick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-11
Updated: 2017-10-11
Packaged: 2019-01-16 04:15:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12335289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vaxildamn/pseuds/vaxildamn
Summary: Vax'ildan wakes up sick and Shaun dotes on him.For my boy, Rowan.





	Such Good Care

**Author's Note:**

> The "Elven" in here is actually Sindarin, from Tolkien's works, because I don't know about D&D's Elven language.
> 
> "melethron" = beloved (male)  
> "Elo… no menelui hen…" = "(Exclamation of wonder)... this is heavenly..."  
> "Melinde, hervenn" = "I love you, husband" [an approximation based on known suffixes because there is no directly given translation of "I love you" in Sindarin]

Vax woke himself up with a sneeze.

 

_ Gods, what is that pounding noise? _

 

He rolled over, his eyes still closed to the morning light, and felt the pounding follow his head, intensifying in response to the movement. He would have sighed, but the deep breath in through his nose was cut off and he groaned instead. The footsteps in the other room told him that Shaun was already awake and making coffee, but it must not be too late in the day or he would already be at the shop. Vax forced himself into a sitting position and hissed at his body’s general “fuck you” reaction. He opened his eyes as much as he could, the light too bright and painful, and stumbled his way out of the bedroom to the kitchen, pulling on the dark, silky pants and robe that Gilmore had brought from Marquet for Vax to use as lounge-around-the-house clothing. The robe was left untied and the pants hung loose around his hips as he leaned on the doorframe, running his fingers through his tangled hair and rubbing his eyes.

 

“Good morning,” he croaked, starting a coughing fit that drew Shaun’s immediate attention. Turning from the breakfast of breads and fruits that he had been preparing, his eyes went a bit wide and his face took on that sort of worried look he got when Vax came home from a mission with too many cuts and bruises. The one he gets before he grabs potions and salves and basically forces Vax into agreeing to a spa evening to heal him up and relax the tension he always keeps in his shoulders and upper back.

 

“My dear boy, you look terrible!” he gasped, rushing over and pressing the back of his hand to Vax’s forehead, and then to each of his cheeks.

 

“Fuck you too, I guess,  _ melethron _ .” Vax tried to laugh and threw himself into another coughing fit, which led right into a series of sneezes.

 

“Darling, you’re on fire!”

 

“Oh, being on fire feels very diff-”

 

“Don’t get smart with me, dearest,” Gilmore cut him off. “You’re going back to bed. You look like death.”

 

“She’s quite beautiful, actually.” 

 

“What did I  _ just _ say, Vax’ildan? Bed. Now.” He started pushing him back through the door of the kitchen towards the large mattress, covered in soft, vibrantly-colored sheets, bearing a faint shadow of Vax’s body from the sweat of his fever. “Good gods… Okay…” He let Vax lay himself down and started pacing the room, murmuring to himself about something Vax couldn’t quite catch. When he looked back, Vax was stretched across the bed, laying on his side, one leg bent and one hand on his hip while the other supported his head. He grinned and Gilmore and waggled his eyebrows, and watched his husband stifle a laugh. 

 

“Oh, you really have no idea what you look like, do you?” He couldn’t stop a giggle from escaping this time. Vax’s bedhead was a mess, his skin was shiny with sweat and had taken on a sickly sort of paleness, and the redness around his eyes and nose were matched only by the redness at the tips of his slightly-pointed ears.

 

“You signed on for me ‘in sickness and in health,’ Shaun. Bring it over here.” He punctuated the sentence with a sneeze and then one of those shit-eating grins he usually wore so well.

 

“You’re delirious,” Shaun laughed again. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.” He walked out of the room and Vax collapsed onto the mattress, burying his face in the silky fabric and sniffling again. He could hear Shaun rummaging around in the kitchen but his mind was too foggy to really discern what he could be doing. He wanted to get up, to tell Shaun that he was fine and didn’t need to be doted on, but the creeping sensation of nausea and the all-over pain convinced him to stay in bed for once and admit that he felt truly miserable.

 

He closed his eyes for what he thought was just a moment, but he woke up to a warm, large hand on his back and the feeling of the mattress sinking beside him.

 

“Sherri is going to look after the shop today, my bird,” he whispered, a soft smile on his face. He tucked a stray hair behind one of Vax’s ears and leaned down to kiss his forehead. “I am at your beck and call.”

 

Vax rolled onto his back and whined, his headache still raging and a stomachache starting to join in. His whole body was sore, really, and not the kind of sore that felt good. Not the sore after a long day of training. “Everything hurts…” he murmured. And then, dramatically, “After all I do for her, she makes me suffer in my final moments...”

 

“Let me see what I can do.” Gilmore’s weight lifted off the mattress again and Vax watched as he pulled bottles from the shelves around the room, setting them on the bedside table. When he seemed satisfied with his selections, Shaun shrugged his nice outer robe off, and hung it up. He pulled off layers of deep purple and blue silks before sliding out of his pants and setting them back in the drawer. He heard a half-awake “nice” from Vax as he walked naked around the room in search of his house clothes, and a “boo” when he found them and started dressing again. When he came back to the bed, he was only wearing a pair of pants, ones quite similar to those Vax had on, and informed his new patient that a bath was in order.

 

It took a good five minutes to get Vax to actually get up and walk to the bathroom, refusing to let Gilmore carry him there, but it gave Gilmore time to summon and heat the water. Following behind the slow shuffling of his husband, Shaun carried the collection of bottles to the tub and set them on the edge. Vax let himself be undressed, Shaun pressing kisses to his sweat-coated skin as he dropped the robe to the floor and knelt down to help Vax step out of his pants. When he deemed the water sufficiently hot, he started pouring from the bottles, letting a menthol sort of smell fill the room. Vax, usually so good on his feet, stabilized himself on one of Shaun’s broad shoulders as he stepped into the water, sighing as he lowered himself into the heat. 

 

“ _ Elo… no menelui hen… _ ” 

 

Shaun smiled to himself. Vax’s eyes had fluttered shut and he looked peaceful for a moment. Getting to hear him speak Elven was a rare treat, too. He almost never used it, except for terms of endearment that he thought were especially beautiful, or when he was so exhausted that the habit (from years of speaking it in Syngorn) overcame his general distaste for that part of his life. Shaun loved the sound of it, though. It rolled off of his lover’s tongue with such grace that he found himself entranced whenever he spoke it. Vax had the same response to Shaun speaking in Marquesian. 

 

The two sat in comfortable silence as the heat crept into Vax’ildan’s aching muscles, and the oils and extracts worked to relieve the headache and let him breathe again. He dunked his head under and let Gilmore wash his hair and use that wonderful oil that left it feeling so soft, coughing and sniffling the whole time. He let Shaun scrub the sweat from his skin too, allowing himself to be moved and his arms to be lifted and his legs to be positioned as his lover gently cleaned his whole body. For a long time after that, Shaun sat on a pillow on the floor beside the tub, his thick fingers laced Vax’s slender ones, gently rubbing his thumb over the back of his husband’s hand and sometimes playing the simple, silver wedding band that matched his own golden one. A particularly bad coughing fit pulled them from their peaceful moment, and Shaun scrambled to his feet to find a remedy. 

 

When he returned, he offered Vax a hand, a towel in his other, and pulled him out of the cooling water. Vax stood, honestly a bit embarrassed at his helplessness, as Gilmore dried him off, wrapping him in both the towel and a strong pair of arms. He let himself lean into Shaun’s chest, humming contentedly at the warmth and softness of the belly pressing against him, and kissed lazily at the beautifully dark skin as his still-dripping hair soaked the floor below them. Shaun finished drying him, his hair left damp, and scooped him into his arms before he could object. 

 

“I can walk!” he managed between coughs, but by that time, he was already being set on the bed, and to be honest, being held close to the heat of Gilmore’s body was worth the indignation he felt. 

 

“I know, darling,” Shaun replied, his voice taking on the same tender quality it had had most of the day. “I know.” He started arranging the pillows behind Vax to give him a sort of cushy throne (this required moving the absurd number of pillows with which Shaun slept over to the side of the bed where Vax slept with one) and then began piling blankets onto him. The tea kettle whistled just in time to save Vax from another layer of furs, and he watched his doting husband rush out of the room towards the kitchen, returning moments later with a big mug and some of the bread from that morning. “I made the closest approximation of the tea my mother gave me when I was sick. It’s a traditional home remedy from Shandal. I- I hope it’s okay.” He waited as Vax took a sip, and couldn’t help but smile at the involuntary “mmmm” that immediately followed. He pecked at the bread for a while, but gave into his lack of an appetite and came back to the mug. 

 

“Thank you, Shaun.” Vax’s voice was raspy, and a bit funny because of the congestion, but sincere. “You always take such good care of me.” He patted the bed beside him and took a long drink from the mug as Gilmore sat cross-legged on the mattress. 

 

“It’s my pleasure, Vax’ildan. Like you said this morning,” he chuckled, “I signed on for you ‘in sickness and in health.’” 

 

“Still.” He let his eyelids fall shut as the tea soothed his sore throat and gentle fingers toyed with his hair. Setting the now-empty mug aside, Vax pulled his husband down into kiss and wriggled out from under the prison of blankets, kicking them down the bed and wordlessly asking Shaun to lie down with him. “ _ Melinde _ ,  _ hervenn _ .”

 

“I love you too,” Gilmore smiled, settling beside Vax and pulling the slender frame close, pressing them together from chest to knees with Vax’s back to him. He kissed the tip of an ear and was ready to get comfortable when another coughing fit came on. Sitting up, he pulled Vax into his lap as he rested against the pillows, Vax now propped upright against his chest so that he could breathe. Pulling one of the sheets over them to keep the heat from leaving Vax’s still-naked body, Shaun kissed his forehead again and closed his eyes. “So very much.”

 

He woke up late in the evening, Vax still curled into him and sound asleep. Shaun smiled to himself at the normal temperature of the skin pressed to his, and the normal sound of his husband’s breathing. He kissed Vax’ildan softly and sweetly, brushed long black hairs from his face, and dozed off again, absolutely content.


End file.
